Ms. Marvel #12 [Spoilers]

I've always liked Ms. Marvel ever since I was a teenager buying her solo title back in the post-Silver Age.

Her current title?

Well, actually, I'm still enjoying Carol's search. Carol has, for a long time, been portayed as someone with feet of clay, and that's all right. (I am glad they haven't been touching on her alcoholism--that's a well-beaten horse and her current issues are far more interesting in any case.) Civil War may have sidelined her story somewhat, but it's still there--her attempts to become a better hero, a noble goal that, it's become apparent, she isn't guaranteed to be up to in the long run.

She's human. She isn't--not always--a nice person, or even a good person. She tends to take a narrow focus and has, thus far, tended to confuse the trappings of herodom with its essence. Didn't it strike anyone else as strange that one of the first things she did on her journey toward self-improvement was to sign up a publicity agent? To become better known rather than better?

I'm sure that Carol has additional reasons for wanting to do this (you know, things like "helping humanity" :)) but the fame, the star power, is something she wants as well. And that's not horrible--maybe a little shallow, but not horrible, and certainly understandable.

(And although I'm sure as well that she has more substantial reasons for taking the pro-reg side in CW, the fact that registering as a hero also provides her with name recognition and societal approval would be a plus in her eyes--and the "official" status of registered hero would appeal to her a great deal.)

So I'm actually looking forward to seeing where this story goes in the months to come. I think it could be interesting, both in terms of Carol's personal journey and in terms of what it means to be a hero in the Marvel Universe.

But enough of that. A few thoughts on this issue in specific:

• Holy crap, poor Arana! Since kids in comics are an interest of mine, I've been watching this story unfold with some interest. I don't know a lot about Arana, other than that I gather she went out on her own before registering, and since then has been receiving some training from Carol (and possibly from others). Thought #1 here: taking on a "sidekick" or youthful trainee is a responsibility, and may not be something Carol is willing to do. (Hell, I wouldn't do it if I were a superhero.)
  
  Thought #2: Anya's dad knows, I'm sure, that this sort of thing could happen to his daughter regardless of whether she's on her own or out with another hero. In theory she should be safer if she's not alone. On the other hand, if she's hanging with Carol she's likely to be seeing a higher grade of supervillain than she may be used to. That's probably something to consider when pairing up a trainee with a registered hero.


• Carol healing from the zombifying effect--um, interesting? (Actually not really. We'll see if anything interesting comes of this in the future.)


• I'm a little disappointed to see the potential sinsterization of Sarah Day. Why can't she be just an annoying PR person, hm? Why does she have to have ulterior motives? Grrr.